


The Queen is a Sun, not a Wolf

by Rogercat



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Elia Martell Lives, F/M, Gen, Implied Relationships, Kings & Queens, Married Robert Baratheon/Lyanna Stark, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Mother-Son Relationship, No Rebellion, Other, POV Elia Martell, Rhaegar Lives, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 21:38:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14173935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Elia Martell refuses to let Rhaegar do something that will doom them all. After all, she is his wife, not the Stark girl





	The Queen is a Sun, not a Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for R+L shippers, but I truly dislike how the TV show handled his relationship with Elia and Lyanna in the sixth and seventh season. They basically made Rhaegar throw his adult wife and two children away for a teenage girl, not seeming to care how they would be affected by him annulling his marriage to Elia...
> 
> imspiration for this comes from various posts about Elia at http://pre-gameofthrones.tumblr.com

**_The Queen is a Sun, not a Wolf_ **

 

Elia knows that people blames her for Rhaegar not having more children, that her frail health is the curse for only one child currently being born in her marriage, a girl who can not inherit the Iron Throne. That his eyes are drawn to the Stark girl, Lyanna. Eight years younger than the Crown prince, a maid who is already betrothed to the young Lord of Storm's End, Robert Baratheon. Elia herself is nearly three years older than her husband, a whole eleven years senior to the Wolf maid from the North.

 

“ ** _I will not allow him to shame me, or our children!_ ** ”

 

She needs to act fast, before the Tourney at Harrenhal is over. Before Rhaegar does something foolish that will doom them all, for that horrible prophecy that he was so obsessed with. For she carries already a second child under her heart, she knows all the signs from when carrying her sweet Rhaenys.  

 

For once, both the Seven and the Old Gods seems to actually agree on something, for Elia walks almost straight into Robert Baratheon, who indeed matches his family name of Storm Lord from his furious face and dark look over that Rhaegar had the nerve of crowning _his_ fiancée as the Queen of Love and Beauty instead of the Dornish princess he had as wife.

 

“Lord Baratheon, you could not have arrived at a better time, for I think I am in dire need of your help,” Elia is quick to greet him.

 

That same evening, Lyanna is nowhere to be seen. And it is only in the following morning that Eddard Stark finds a letter from his best friend that Robert have spirited Lyanna away to Storm's End, telling him that Robert will not have his future bride stolen by the Dragon Prince or have her ruin the marriage of the future royal couple of the Seven Kingdoms.

 

Robert have his flaws as every other man, but he agrees with the Crown Princess about this possible disaster that could happen. Rhaegar and Lyanna have to be kept away from each other, the folly of two persons can not be allowed to affect the lives of others.  

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

Around the same time as Elia announced her second pregnancy for the whole royal court, she gets a letter from Storm's End. Lyanna Stark, aged just past her fifteenth name-day, is now Lady Baratheon and already seems to be carrying her first child as well, a sign of Robert keeping his half of the secret agreement.

 

The little She-Wolf will never be able to carry Rhaegar's bastard if she is already wed and bedded to the point of doing her duty as a future mother, and Rhaegar will never be able to set Elia aside for a younger and hopefully more fertile wife, who is blessed with stronger health.

 

“ ** _I am sorry, Rhaegar, Lyanna, I am really horrible sorry...but this is for the best. Please, understand...the whole realm will not have to suffer because of you two…_ ** ”

 

There is arguments and bitter tears following, but slowly with time as her pregnancy near its end, Elia manages to more or less literally smack it into Rhaegar's thick, stubborn skull about the fatal mistake he could have done.

 

“ **She is** **_eight years younger_ ** **than you, Rhaegar!** **_Eight years_** **! Daughter of House Stark, yes, but have she been at a royal court before? Have she ever left the North before? Have she been trained in the art of politics that a Queen must possess, and not just the skills that every Lady of a Great House must have learned before marriage? I know that my flaws are a frail body and most likely will not give you more children after this child, but I refuse to be set aside and see my place at your side be taken by a naive little** **_GIRL_** ** _!!_ ** ”

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

Just days after that she have given birth to her son Aegon, her good-father Aerys II Targaryen suddenly dies in the middle of the night. There is whispers of poison, since it is a such timely death, but it is soon confirmed to be a heart attack.

 

Her good-mother Rhaella is in grief over losing her husband, but admits to her family members that it is for the early years of their lives when she and Aerys did not know that they were to marry each other once Rhaella had flowered and could give birth to the next generation of Targaryen kings, when they had innocently dreamt of marrying other people and live a much different life than what they ended up doing.

 

“He cared for me as a sister and brother does in childhood. And...he wanted me to marry a man of my own choice, not on the order of our father to keep the family line pure…”

 

Soon enough, it becomes clear that Aerys left one last gift to his sister-wife, one which is growing in her womb.

 

“Promise me that neither Viserys or this child will have to marry inside the family, please, Elia. Let me and Aerys be the final ones, at least as much as it is in your power to do so. Let Tywin Lannister have that Targaryen bridegroom to his daughter as he have been wishing for, let him face that his little lion daughter have to deal with marriage to a dragon prince ten years younger than herself and not seven years older.”

 

Elia promises this on the very morning that she and Rhaegar is crowned to the new King and Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

 

With Rhaella so weak from earlier miscarriages and stillbirths she have suffered in her life, it is almost to be expected that she dies in childbirth, after giving birth to a daughter she names Daenerys.

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

The little princess Daenerys, the last child of the Mad King, is soon betrothed to Jon Baratheon, the eldest son of Lyanna and Robert.

 

Rhaenys is promised in marriage to Rob Stark, the firstborn son of Brandon Stark and Catelyn Tully, while Aegon is to have Margaery Tyrell as his future Queen.   

 

Rhaenys and Aegon is joined by a surprise sibling two years later, in the year 285 after the Conquest. A princess named Visenya, the third child no one expected Elia to have. She is only two years younger than Harrold Hardyng, the great-nephew and heir to Lord Jon Arryn unless he fathers a son of his own with a new wife.  

 

“I am _NOT_ giving Visenya as bride to any possible son of Jaime Lannister and Lysa Tully. His twin sister will have Viserys as her bridegroom and nothing shall change that!” Elia warns Rhaegar when it looks like he is about to protest.  

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

With Viserys as the oldest of the give younger family members, his wedding to Cersei Lannister naturally is first. There is a few jokes around, with the bride already being a old maid at age 27 to her ten years younger bridegroom. Viserys have been warned about the ambition of House Lannister and Tywin that his family will end up on the Iron Throne through marriage, his purple eyes full of mistrust towards his golden bride.  

 

Within two years of marriage, as Cersei tries to claim her newborn son Joffery as a son of Viserys despite the boy already looking unnerving alike her twin brother Jaime with no proof of Targaryen blood, Viserys is quick to have the marriage annulled on the claim that he have never consummated the wedding night and almost creates a royal scandal by quickly marry Elia's niece Arianne Martell as his bride instead while Cersei is forced to join the silent sisters as punishment for the incest with Jaime, who is sent to the Wall.

 

Lysa Tully, who have been childless throughout the marriage to Jaimc, is found one morning to have taken her own life. The drink in the glass she was found holding, reveal moon-tea to be the cause of the bleeding that claimed her life.  

 

The marriage between Rhaenys and Rob Stark goes better, and they are joined in marriage when they both are past the age of sixteen. Their marriage gives life to five children.

 

Aegon is showing none of the madness from his grandfather, and by all Elia can see, he is very happy with Margaery Tyrell, especially when their first child soon shall arrive into the world.

 

Visenya and Harrold Hardyng grows famous for travelling together all across the Seven Kingdoms, even as her many pregnancies should be a perfectly legal reason for staying home in the Vale of Arryn. Almost as a joke, all of Visenya's children is born anywhere but the Vale of Arryn: her first son Robin at Starfall, where Eddard Stark and his wife Ashara Dayne lives with their children, her second son Daeron at Storm's End much to the amusement of Robert, her daughter Meria in Winterfell and lastly her twins Alyssa and Baelon in King's Landing.

 

“Please do not force me to actually lock you up inside the Eyrie at your next pregnancy!” Elia pleads with her youngest child, through not without really meaning it as Visenya have made it clear to Harrold and Lord Jon Arryn that five children is more than enough for her.

 

“Mother dear, relax a little. I am not going anywhere soon. Those two little royal descendants are already making me stay in one place with you!” Visenya smiles before cooing at her youngest children held in her arms.

 

~X~X~X~X~X~X

 

Rhaegar, good king as he is, ends up haunted by Lyanna and what could have been. Elia can tell from his looks at young Jon Baratheon, wondering if he truly is fathered by Robert after all. Every time that Robert and Lyanna comes to court, the King tries to follow her every move.

 

Finally, she have a end of it. Robert quits taking Lyanna with him, and Elia reminds Rhaegar who his actual wife is.

 

In year 305 after the Conquest, the reign of Rhaegar comes to unexpected end, caused by a chest wound caused by a cruel axe owned by Victarion Greyjoy, in a new Greyjoy rebellion. Robert Baratheon defends his King with his own warhammer, but the damage is too great and Rhaegar dies at the age of 46 years as the house of Greyjoy is wiped out around him.

 

Elia is now a Queen Dowager, surrounded by her children and grandchildren at the funeral of Rhaegar the day before Aegon is to be crowned as the next King, but she finds that a little price to pay. If this were the price to ensure that Rhaegar and Lyanna did end up causing something that were bound to destroy House Targaryen, so be it. She have survived, against all odds.

 

The Queen of Rhaegar Targaryen remained a Sun, not a Wolf.      


End file.
